There have been several changes made to our curriculum offerings for senior students for 2022. These changes include some semesterised courses in Year 12, a sprinkling of new connected curriculum courses in Year 12 and the ‘de-levelling’ of a number of senior courses. The overall purpose of these changes is to offer greater choice to students and to offer Year 12 students, in particular, a wider range of opportunities for students to test out their subject preferences more easily.

Perhaps the most noticeable change is that we have made a decision to semesterise some Year 12 courses for 2022. This means that students will have the opportunity to try out a few more subjects along the way. Not all courses fit easily into a semesterised structure, however, and teachers have made the decision as to whether a semesterised structure will work for their programme. In 2022 Year 12 students will choose the equivalent of five and a half programmes from the prospectus. This could be made up of five full year programmes and one half year programme, or alternatively four full year programmes plus three half year programmes. In addition they will do one hour of Hauora.

As well as this, a few teachers have put together connected semesterised programmes, notably an Art and English programme (Where Art and English Meet) and Sculpture+ (a programme which connects Art and Technology). Some of the other new courses on offer include 12 Art for Life, 12 Colonisation History and Māori Studies, 12 Food for Sustainable Living, 12 English Inquiry and 12 Social Action Media. Some other programmes have had a ‘refresh’ and others have been ‘de-levelled’ - for example Beginner Music - which offers the opportunity for senior students at any level (11,12,13) to have the opportunity to take Music even though they may have no previous background in Music.

We look forward to working with students later in Term 3 and 4 to support their subject choices and to ensure that they make good decisions which will help them pathway to further education or to the workforce.